The number of hate crime incidents have leapt by around 11% in a year – fuelled by a rise in race and religion-related reports in South Wales, alarming new information has suggested.

Figures uncovered by Plaid Cymru suggest a leap in reports of hate crime between 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, with the rise fuelled by a 20% rise in incidents in the South Wales Police area – with race hate crimes making up the vast bulk of its 1,224 complaints, up from 811 in 2012-2013 to 878 incidents last year.

The party raised the spectre that the rise was being fuelled by high-profile incidents, including the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in May last year – pointing to a rise in reports following his brutal murder by extremists in a street near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south east London, which provoked a huge public outcry.

But in the South Wales area, reports of hate crime linked to religion more than doubled from 27 to 56 in a year, while reports of crimes related to sexual orientation leapt from 121 to 161 in 2013-2014.

Crimes related to disability also spiked from 84 to 100 reports, while the number of incidents involving transgender people rose from nine in 2012-2013 to 29 last year.

Despite the marked rise in South Wales, the three other forces in Wales – North Wales Police, Gwent Police and Dyfed-Powys Police – all reported general drops in the number of reports.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, who represents the South Wales Central region, said: “An increase of 20% in hate crime in a year should be of deep concern to everyone.

“The current political context of division whereby people are scapegoating and division is rife characterises UK political debate and cannot be overlooked as a possible contributory factor in the rise in intolerance and discrimination.

Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood

“Intolerance and hatred in all of forms must be confronted wherever it raises its ugly head.

“There is an obligation on all of us in our communities to work together with people from all backgrounds to stand up against hate crime and racism.”

“We expect this to lead to an increase in reported crimes, which is necessary to ensure action is taken to tackle these crimes.”

A spokesman for South Wales Police said: “South Wales is a modern, multi-cultural region where people of different religions, faiths and cultures live side by side and have done for many, many years.

“Research has shown that hate incidents have been under reported and while we wish for hate crime to decrease, we also recognise that people must be confident enough to feel able to report such incidents to the police. This is why we have been working to encourage hate crime reporting by working with our partner agencies.

“What is equally important is to see increasing levels of satisfaction of hate crime victims, particularly in the follow-up after an incident has been reported to us.

“However, we always encourage victims of hate crime to contact South Wales Police as we have a team of hate crime officers within our Minorities Support Unit who can offer support and assistance. We will not tolerate any actions which threaten to destabilise this cohesion in our communities.”

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